July 27 (Reuters) - Addax Petroleum Corp AXC.TO, which agreed to be acquired by China’s Sinopec in a $7.24 billion deal, posted an 87 percent drop in second-quarter profit as crude prices tumbled from near-record levels a year ago.

The Swiss oil explorer earned $38 million, or 24 cents a share, down from year-earlier $293 million, or $1.83 a share.

Quarterly average gross working interest oil production rose 8 percent to 143,240 barrels per day, while petroleum sales before royalties fell 51 percent to $735 million.

Analysts on average expected the company to earn 47 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $652.6 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company’s funds flow from operations fell 41 percent to $306 million, or $1.90 per share, from $521 million, or $3.22 per share, a year ago.

Excluding oil production from the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Addax expects annual average working interest gross oil production for 2009 to be between 132,000 barrels per day and 137,000 barrels per day.